


A little bit gutted.

by RosieMaeWrites



Series: The Curse of the 7th Wheel [2]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Angst, Depression, Eating Disorders, Intense pain, Keith is a bit of an asshole, Langst, M/M, Multi, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Shiro is a hero, bad magic, but he's tryinf and that's what's important, but not really, communal showers, god bless, torture and magic, y'all asked for this
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-08
Updated: 2017-03-08
Packaged: 2018-09-30 20:20:32
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,865
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10171070
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RosieMaeWrites/pseuds/RosieMaeWrites
Summary: Now Lance is living his life within this curse and struggling not to crack under the pressure. Then Shiro shows up to take away some weight.





	

**Author's Note:**

> I'm warning y'all! This is sad and if you have a problem, please talk about it with someone, it's okay to ask for help. Also, I wrote this on my phone, because my laptop is hella broken.

He was in a healing pod for a whole week after his 4 months with Lotor in his own personal hell. Lance tried not to think about it, because when he did, it hurt the exact same way. It felt like all of his bones grew hot and his guts would twist into knots as the world spun on its axis.

His fellow paladins left him alone for a day or two, at his request, as he tried to familiarize himself with where he was now. He was back in the castle, safe, warm, alone a voice whispered and his teeth ached in his gums and his fingers and toes grew cold.

It would take a while for people to act like Lance wasn't made of glass, wasn't just going to collapse and never get up again, even if he wanted to so, so very badly.

God, he was a fuck up. Shiro survived for a year and Lance became a little bitch after only four months. He shouldn't be like this, he couldn't complain. The thought came to him during laps at the start of training the first week he was allowed to train again. He choked and apparently whited out for a second because Hunk said his knees buckled and he almost fell. Lance doesn't remember falling, but he did remember feeling like his ribs were trying to crush his lungs as he gasped for breath until the pain faded.

Everyone was concerned, but he waved them off and said it might've been some lingering side effects of the Druid stuff. No one, not even Allura, questioned him. They were all too busy trying to forgive themselves for what happened to their friend.

Pidge was worried, trying to make an effort to include Lance in her conversations with Hunk, usually snapping him out of a pained looked with surprise. Like he was surprised anyone noticed him.

Keith, Keith wasn't very good at this sort of thing, but he tried by helping Lance get back on his feet training wise, actually talking a few times instead of just bickering like idiots. It was nice, to see a new side of his friend that he had never seen before. In fact, he was starting to like it.

Shiro wasn't surprised when Keith admitted that he had a thing for Lance, he'd just been waiting for his half-galra, all his, boyfriends to come to terms with it. He liked Lance well enough, thought he was attractive and told Keith that he was free to join them if it was okay with Lance.

 

* * *

 

The Blue Paladin kept a seal on the cause of his pain, because if they knew how much emotional pain he was in, they would probably try to hug him and give long winded speeches that would sound like complete bullshit. The thoughts made his hips and knees ache as he scrolled through a data pad to try and find a cure on his own.

About three weeks after the training incident, he caught Shiro and Keith looking at each other from across the dinner table and he knew. He knew that they were more than just friends, or 'brothers' or whatever excuse they'd been using. His heart hurt before the actual pain stepped into its place. He hadn't really eaten much, not since he got back because Lotor said one of the reason's Shiro didn't find him attractive was because he was fat, and somehow that comment hurt a lot, even before the curse made the point crushing. However, he saw that look and he would've thrown up, but before he knew it, his eyes burned and his shoulders jerked and twitched as his ribs squeezed and boiled his insides until he was unconscious again.

At least, as time went on, it was easier not to pass out, to numb himself to some of the pain as his fingers grew bony and his armor hung from his frame like Spanish moss off of a willow tree. He still made jokes, still tried to give smiles and laugh, even if it sounded hollow and painful.

And it was. The niceties had worn off and he was back to being stupid, always in the way Lance. Now, he was constantly hurting, his shoulders and back and face aching as someone told him to shut up, or that he didn't look very good. He was still annoying Lance, and now he knew that was all he'd ever be.

 

* * *

After a hard won fight, Lance stepped out of his lion, he helped all that he could, but it still didn't feel like enough to make a difference. Not to mention he got hit, but whatever. It'll be a cool bruise.

He stayed for a second until he knew everyone was okay before he had to stop himself from limping to the showers. He was almost there were a hand caught him at the elbow and he gave a yelp because that hurt, damn it.

Lance turned to see Keith, followed closely by their leader, who both looked at him with a mix of concern and apprehension. Shiro spoke first.

"Hey, man, you feeling okay? You left in kind of a hurry." The older man said with a crease between his eyebrows that Lance hated to admit he liked. He'd always found Shiro and Keith attractive, but he wasn't even close to being in their league and wanted to save himself the embarrassment. But suddenly, all of their attention was on him and he didn't like it at all, he wanted to crawl into his own skin and die.

"Uh, yeah. I'm tired." He responded dumbly, and he wasn't lying. His eating habits of 'not eating' we're starting to become evident in the way his uniform under his armor pulled tight where his rib cage flared out and then just hung limply until his frame widened at his hips. No one seemed to notice though, but some people, alien girls mostly, said he looked very handsome now, and he had to tell them his secrets. He never did though.

"Alright, mind if we shower with you?" Keith asked bluntly after a beat or two of silence. The Red Paladin could feel Lance's bones, could now see how dull his skin and hair looked, which was really off putting to say the least.

"Luh-Like right now?" The boy stuttered, going a bit red in the face, tinting his already dark skin. "Together?" For all of the advancements that Alteans had, only having one communal shower per locker room seemed like a step backwards. Even if Lance said no and went to the shower in his room, he'd have to make the return trip to drop of his armor off to be cleaned.

"Yeah, come on, it's not a big deal." Shiro's eyebrows furrowed because Lance looked scared for some reason, like they all hadn't showered together numerous times before. "You can go in before us and start if you want." The older man proposed with softened grey eyes.

Lance nodded and bit his lip, turning the corner into the locker room. He only breathed when he was on the other side of the door, covering his face and he felt his organs cramp heavily in his concave gut. With delicate, careful fingers, he removed his armor and uniform and threw in down the 'Blue Paladin cleaning shoot'. He slipped into the shower, with about a waist high wall at the front, with a small rectangle to enter through, and it kept asses and cocks covered up if you were outside of the shower itself. The water turned on scalding hot, but he just stood under it, waiting for the worst to come.

Meanwhile, out in the hallway, Keith was frowning up at his boyfriend. "I'm worried about him." He admitted, his frown deepening and his eyebrows furrowing in his trademark scowl as he looked at the door to the locker room.

"Yeah, me too...but maybe we'll make him feel better if we ask him now." Shiro couldn't think of anything better to do other than a platonic heart to heart with boiling sexual tension between them.

Keith nodded and stood on his tip toes to get a kiss for luck before they entered the immaculate white tile locker room and heard the sound of the shower echoing through the room.

Both of them turned into the shower section to see the steam rising up and Lance with his back to them. Okay, Keith was going to be sick. He'd never seen that many vertebrae and ribs through someone's skin before. And the scars, Shiro could tell they were new, as they littered the dark skin that they could see. Galra scars.

Lance turned around to see them, seeing horror and sadness in their eyes and he almost passed out from the pain in his arms, feeling like they were about to fall off as he caught himself against the slick tile walls.

"Lance...what happened?" Keith asked, like a dumbass, sounding stern and breathless at the same time as Lance turned back to face the wall as pain curled around his intestines and pulled.

The Red Paladin was about to asking again before Shiro put a hand on his shoulder to shut him up. "Hey Lance, finish showering real quick, okay? Keith and I need to talk to you." Shiro responded with a soft, soothing level-headedness Lance had never heard but he quite liked.

The two Paladins not in the shower stripped down to their uniforms before sitting on a bench outside of the showers, waiting patiently and sharing looks that spoke volume behind Lance's back.

Three minutes later, Lance was grabbing his towel and ruffling his hair before tying the towel around his waist and walking out to sit on a bench parallel to them. He looked tired and Shiro took a deep breath and counted Lance's ribs as Keith opened his mouth.

"We want to date you."

Lance looked confused, looking down at his long, thin fingers as he tried to compute what Keith was trying to say. His own thin eyebrows arched. "You want to-?"

"Date you. Me and Shiro." Keith said plainly, as if explaining the weather to a dog and Lance grimaced and held his side. The Black Paladin frowned and nudged his boyfriend to lay off.

"But you guys are a thing, right? I-I don't want to intrude." He stammered, his face heating up as his skull ached at the self diminishing thoughts that were flying through his head, fast and faster as the conversation went on.

"You won't be intruding! We're inviting you, it's okay, Lance." Shiro used that voice again and the Blue Paladin couldn't refuse him, even if he tried, not with that tone that he wanted in his head all the time.

"Yeah...Alright, I'm in." He offered a small smile as he stood to get his clothes, and Keith stood up to kiss his cheek, a quick peck, and Shiro pulled him into a loose, kind hug.

Maybe this would make everything hurt less.

 

* * *

This made everything so much worse. The pain was too much and he could barely function. Lance just curled up in his bed, fending off the most intense pain from head to toe. It was like Lotor was in the room with him, taunting and laughing at him for his stupidity.

Of course they didn't really care about him, outside of something warm to stick their dick in. Of course, of course, of course!

They just spent all their time together, only to collect him for the night until he came and then he just sat back and watched and wanted but he never stepped in because he knew he didn't belong. Those nights hurt the worst, laying there facing the wall of the bunk, with Shiro's back to his and he and Keith cuddled. It felt like he was being ripped apart at the seams.

  
Shiro, from the start of their relationship, was cautious. Lance was obviously in some kind of intense pain that he never really discussed, he just lived with it. The Black Paladin could understand, really, and he tried to be there for support, but they were fighting a war. Some things had to get pushed aside in the meantime.

Keith wasn't as worried as he used to be, having whispered praise to Lance in the middle of a romp, holding him though an orgasm or two, and he now watched what Lance ate with more attention than a hawk. He's willing to admit, he's a bit over bearing sometimes when it comes to food, but Lance was wasting away, goddamnit.

The Seventh Wheel lay on his thin mattress in his room as his body pulsed with pain to the beat of his heart. He didn't even move when the door slid open and someone walked in, probably Keith to bother him about food. He'd taken to simply gagging himself on his fingers the minute Keith left, determined that he wouldn't get fat. Because if he got fat, Shiro wouldn't want him anymore and then everyone would leave him again and he would probably die.

Instead of a loud voice or a jabbing finger, a weight settled near his head and the whoosh of the door sounded final. Calloused fingers trailed down his side and slipped under the hem of his shirt to rest on the skin of his protruding hipbone. Ah, Shiro.

"Lance, baby, I need you to tell me why you're hurting so much. I can see it everyday now, and you don't eat...it worries me, not just as your boyfriend, but your leader and your friend." Shiro used his voice, the one he used to use to scold Lance, to brush him off like he didn't matter, now sounds pained, worried. "I want to know what's going on so you can get the help you need."

Oh, that was the final straw, what broke Lance into a million little pieces. The older man looked a bit startled at the loud, sobbing wail that rose to his throat, covering his face with his hands and finally letting the tears go. It was like having Blue sit on his chest and she suddenly decided to get up.

"L-Lotor...cursed m-me! E-Every ti-ti-time I feel h-hurt emo-motionally, it huh-hurts like real pain! Everything - hic- hurts all the time!" Lance sobbed, stuttered and trying to get everything out in English so that Shiro could actually understand it before he descended into sobbing and trying to get his own emotions in check as pain rolled and ebbed through him like the oceans from back home.

"Lance...Lance, that was six months ago! Why didn't you tell us?" The older man asked, pulling the skeleton of a boy into his arms and holding him tightly as he writhed and sobbed.

God, he was the worst leader ever. How could he not see someone so close to him suffering so much? Lance was in so much pain...was it all his fault? Was Lance quietly agonizing all his fault because he was young and biased and an asshole a lot of the time?

"Y-You can do-oo anything now! W-Why burden y-you?" He sounded so dejected and suffering because he didn't want to put more stress on him. Shiro wanted to cry, rocking Lance to a tune he remembered hearing on an tropical planet that Lance seemed to like forever ago.

"And why are you not eating, baby?" He asked the last question softly, having finally calmed the boy down a bit, blinking back his own tears.

"L-Lotor said y-you didn't want me because I was fah-fat...'N if you don't want me you'll leave and take Keith with you...I-I don't wanna be alone again." Lance whimpered, curling against the chest he was pressed to, feeling his lower back ache the the pain and weight of the secrets he was spilling.

Now Shiro was actually crying, holding his boyfriend tighter and running his hands over Lance's back and sides, anywhere he could reach.

"No...no Lance, I love you, no matter how much you weigh, and I would never leave you over something like that, you understand me?"

He pulled back to kiss Lance like he meant it, outside of the bedroom, something soft and tender as Shiro tried to give Lance all of the strength and support Lance had to offer.

"But you-" He tried to come back, leaning away and looking down between them.

"No. No buts, babe. I've got feelings for you, serious feelings. I'm not going to love you out of this...thing you have, but I can at least try and get that curse removed so you can be in less pain. Would you like that?" Even though he was crying himself, his voice was smooth and calming and Lance nodded, hugging Shiro again with tears staining his cheeks, but none coming out of his eyes.

Maybe tomorrow they'll fix everything, maybe in ten years, but for one solid minute, Lance didn't hurt. Hell, he even felt good, happy.

He had the sneaking suspicion it wouldn't last.

**Author's Note:**

> Comments are my life blood, please feed your local angst provider with some feedback so I can get better


End file.
